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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Gaza Siege Chokes Israel Diplomatically

The crisis with Turkey is just the latest example of Gaza's
ability to cause Israel enormous diplomatic damage from within the fence
surrounding the Strip.

By Zvi Bar'el

"Gaza
envelope" is not just a geographic term or an imaginary border line
delimiting the threat zone around a group of communities in the south. It is a
political situation in which, for the sake of accuracy, "Israel"
should replace "Gaza." It is the Gaza Strip that envelopes Israel,
and not the other way around. If a closure or blockade is the index of a
smothering "envelope," then it is Israel that is being smothered,
largely on its own account and in no small measure on account of Gaza.

The
crisis with Turkey is just the latest example of Gaza's ability to cause Israel
enormous diplomatic damage from within the fence surrounding the Strip. While
Israel's alliance with Egypt is not like the one it had with Turkey, Egyptians
are calling for a reappraisal of the Camp David Accords in light of last
month's terror attack near Eilat, in which Gaza had a hand. To its east Israel
is trapped within a new diplomatic front; in less than two weeks the United
Nations will recognize an independent Palestinian state that will of course
include Gaza as well.

It's
true that unlike Gaza's inhabitants Israelis are still free to leave the state,
to import and export goods and even to go abroad to study. But the siege is
setting in. It isn't just the boycott on goods from the territories, the
withdrawal of invitations to Israeli professors or directives to avoid speaking
Hebrew in certain countries. It is the sense that Israel is increasingly
isolating itself within its righteousness, magnifying the genuine and the imaginary
threats, once again using the military language that speaks of the
"high" or "low" probability of war, no longer confident of
the U.S. position toward it and seeing most European states as political
rivals.

A
large majority of UN member states will support recognition of a Palestinian
state. Many of them will say "yes" not because they care about the
Palestinians' political rights - some of these countries oppress their own
citizens - but because of Israel's opposition. Some will support a Palestinian
state because they are fed up with Israeli policy, with the occupation and with
Israel's arrogance. Others will vote in favor because they want to poke
Washington in the eye with a sharp stick for pampering Israel for so long. It
would not be going too far to suggest that the UN vote will be mainly a protest
vote against Israel, a part of the undeclared siege.

Israel
has never given the UN its due. The organization's failures, and its
anti-Israel tendencies, are no secret. No one knows better than Israel that its
resolutions are mainly ink on paper. But the UN is a dangerous arena, incapable
perhaps of solving conflicts but good at defining goals, building international
coalitions and imposing sanctions. It's an arena in which Israel's status is
slipping away, and where even its closest friends labor to understand what
state exactly they are supposed to be protecting.

This
is part of the same siege, that can be likened to icebergs surrounding a
straying ship whose captains are confident of their ability to thread their way
through, until it can no longer move. It is natural to develop a siege
mentality, a solidarity of the besieged, under such conditions. It's not the
captain who ran the ship into the icebergs who is to blame, it's the terrible
weather. It's not the closure of the Gaza Strip that's to blame for destroying
relations, it's the Turks, the Islamists, the pro-Iranians. The Egyptians are
also at fault, for revealing their true faces. And, of course, it's not the
occupation that is at fault, it's the Palestinians who resist living under it.

And
so, what is the only possible response when the entire world rises up against
you; when Gaza, in any of its various names, is closing in on you? That's the
time to hold onto the government's hand, to embrace the army, to consecrate the
settlements and begin a new siege-mentality conversation. A conversation that
will convince the besieged that the only way is that of the government, a
conversation of prestige and condescension, of "We survived Pharaoh, we'll
survive this, too," of "us against the world."

These
are precisely the symptoms of the siege. They are the same words used by the
leaders of countries under international sanctions. The terrible thing is that
one can get used to a siege, at least for long enough to forget what it's like
not to be under siege. But there is nothing like a siege to fortify esprit de
corps - look at Gaza, for example. There's also nothing like a siege to cure a
people that has begun to challenge the decisions of its government, to
demonstrate or to ask superfluous questions. The siege is good for us.

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...